Weather words in Korean

2026-10-21

Basile Morin / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Talking about the weather is small talk everywhere, and Korea is no exception. With four distinct seasons, a summer rainy season and the occasional dusty spring day, Koreans have plenty to say about the sky. Here are the words you'll hear most, with sentences you can use straight away.

Asking about the weather

The key word is 날씨 (nalssi) – weather. The most common question is:

• 오늘 날씨 어때요? (Oneul nalssi eottaeyo?) – How's the weather today?

Typical answers:

• 날씨가 좋아요. (Nalssiga joayo.) – The weather is nice.
• 날씨가 안 좋아요. (Nalssiga an joayo.) – The weather isn't good.

Notice that Korean says rain and snow "come": 비가 와요 (biga wayo) – it's raining, literally "rain comes". Wind "blows": 바람이 불어요 (barami bureoyo).

26 weather words

Example sentences by season

Spring (봄, bom)

• 오늘 미세먼지가 심해요. (Oneul misemeonjiga simhaeyo.) – The fine dust is bad today.
• 날씨가 따뜻해졌어요. (Nalssiga ttatteutaejyeosseoyo.) – It's got warmer.

Fine dust is a real part of daily life in Korea, and many people check an air-quality app before going out. 미세먼지 is one of the first weather words you'll see in a Korean forecast.

Summer (여름, yeoreum)

• 너무 더워요! (Neomu deowoyo!) – It's so hot!
• 장마가 시작됐어요. (Jangmaga sijakdwaesseoyo.) – The rainy season has started.
• 갑자기 소나기가 왔어요. (Gapjagi sonagiga wasseoyo.) – A sudden shower came out of nowhere.

장마 is the summer monsoon season, which usually begins in late June. Expect hot, sticky days, so 습해요 (seupaeyo) – it's humid – will get a lot of use.

Autumn (가을, gaeul)

• 아침저녁으로 쌀쌀해요. (Achimjeonyeogeuro ssalssalhaeyo.) – It's chilly in the mornings and evenings.
• 하늘이 정말 맑아요. (Haneuri jeongmal malgayo.) – The sky is really clear.

Winter (겨울, gyeoul)

• 오늘은 영하 10도예요. (Oneureun yeongha sip-doyeyo.) – It's minus ten degrees today.
• 눈이 많이 와요. (Nuni mani wayo.) – It's snowing a lot.

A note on 덥다 and 춥다

덥다 (hot) and 춥다 (cold) are irregular verbs: the ㅂ at the end of the stem turns into 우. So they become 더워요 (deowoyo) and 추워요 (chuwoyo), not "덥어요" or "춥어요". The same happens in the past tense: 더웠어요 (deowosseoyo) – it was hot.

Also, these two words describe the weather or how your body feels. For things you touch, use different words: 뜨거워요 (tteugeowoyo) – it's hot (like soup), and 차가워요 (chagawoyo) – it's cold (like ice water).

Handy weather phrases

• 우산 챙기세요. (Usan chaenggiseyo.) – Take an umbrella with you. A caring thing to say to friends and colleagues.
• 내일 비 온대요. (Naeil bi ondaeyo.) – They say it'll rain tomorrow.
• 감기 조심하세요. (Gamgi josimhaseyo.) – Watch out you don't catch a cold. Common when the weather turns cold.

Korean you can use

Next time you open a weather app, switch it to Korean for a week. You'll pick up these words faster than you think.